I’d read an article in the Washington Post by Merl Reagle about the inventor of the first crossword puzzle -Arthur Wynne, who ” never received a penny” for his creation. His first puzzle was printed on December 21, 1913.

I have several friends and family who enjoy solving crosswords. In some households there’s a race to get the newspaper first!

And if you haven’t seen the movie WORDPLAY, consider watching it. There’s a trailer for the 2006 film in this link from TIME.

When I was visiting the family in Ohio, their newspaper- Columbus Dispatch- had a giant puzzle created by Monica Zurowski (managing editor of the Calgary Herald) and I mailed it to my friend Bill who is a crossword aficionado. Today he messaged me a photo of the puzzle after he solved it.

He does crosswords everyday and does them well. He says according to the film, WORDPLAY, this puzzle in the photograph is not the definition of a true crossword puzzle but Bill said it was interesting and took a long time to accomplish ( today was an unexpected snow day from school)

Thanks Bill for the photo and good info on crossword puzzles. I’ve seen you do them in ink!

*Want to solve a giant crossword with 853 clues? by Monica Zurowski /from the Calgary Herald- you can download it here

My son Mark drove me and my sister downtown so Mary could catch a 1:10 AM bus to DC to visit some friends. We’ve had a nice couple of weeks together, first in New York City and then with the family in Columbus.

After we dropped her at the Greyhound station, he drove me around the downtown area so I could get a few nighttime shots of the city. The Ohio Statehouse- just a bit of it as I shot it from the car window. Had the 70-200mm Canon L series lens on the camera. I should have gotten out of the car but we were on our way to take Mary. I had envisioned flags flying as they had been the last time we drove by in the daytime, but not even a breeze.